Photography Tip - Get closer! (North Idaho Photography)

One of the things I love most about being a photographer is that I have every images of my family that I love. For the most part when I am taking pictures especially of Dylan I am in photographer mode making photographs and not just taking snapshots. Being that I am a photographer it has become second nature to me to know exactly how to make great images, but for most people this is not the case. So I am going to start doing a weekly post on photo tips to help others get great images of their own family.

This week's tip is to get closer. Most people stand way back from what they are taking a picture of and leave a lot of space around their subject in the photo. You end up with a lot of clutter detracting from your tiny main subject in the middle of the photograph or something like this image here.

Here you see all the messy clutter in the background and the dogs rear end in the foreground. All of this takes away focus from the subject. Instead fill the frame with your subject. This takes out all the distracting background and really focuses in on that great expression or action. You end up with a image that really shows what you were trying to take a picture of. Which is not a messy house or dog rear, but of a baby learning how to walk. Something more like this.


Here is another good example.

There is an arm in the frame at the top taking away from the great smile. As well as both hands being cut off. A quick zoom or crop edit give us this great image.


So next time you go to take a photograph of your loved ones take a second zoom in or move closer fill the frame with what drew you to take the image in the first place. If you practice this enough it will start to become second nature and you will have some great images of those expressions you will want to remember forever.

One side note: you can also fix this problem by cropping your image later on the computer. Sometimes this is necessary as you only have a few seconds to capture the image before the expression goes away. Just be sure to pay attention to your images when you load them on to your computer and fix them then.

See more of Amy’s work at www.amyschmidphoto.com. Become a fan of Amy’s work on Facebook.